Why democracy is not the best way to decide inside organizations
When all colleagues want to participate in decision making, a new and intelligent method must be defined for this process. The easiest way is to use democracy. But this can lead to a situation in which 49.9% of the people don’t support the decision. You don’t want this inside an organization!
As written in my Story A tale of transformation — from hierarchical to agile Organisations, the company, for which I work, is transforming to a more agile, self-organizing organization.
One of the vital questions was: How should we decide if no one has the ultimate power to make the decision?
Earlier, one single person was in charge of making the decision — for example, the line-manager, the team-leader, or another manager.
Now all of us are in the same “level” of the organization, and no one sits “above” the other.
Teams are responsible for achieving their goals, but not a single person.
We looked at several methods described in different methodologies. For example:
- Scrum
- Sociocracy
- Holacracy
- A german method called “Kollegiale Führung” — freely translated to “Leadership between colleagues”
We took the most straightforward way and condensed it to this method
- The Proposal for a decision is submitted to the team/organization
- Feedback is requested a. Questions to the proposer b. Reasonable objections are collected
- If objections exist, the discussion starts a. Does the objection stop the proposal? b. Is it necessary to change the proposal to address the objection? c. How must the proposal be changed to address the objection?
- The proposal is accepted, when no reasonable objections exist
After this process, the approved proposal is “converted” to a decision, which is supported by the entire team or organization.
The most crucial issue addressed with this process is that all team members are free to express themselves with objections, as all objections must be addressed in the discussion. As nobody has more or less power than another, everyone can raise an objection that must be addressed by the proposer and by the team or organization.
As easy as it sounds, as important is it to define some rules:
- When and where can a proposal be submitted to the team or organization?- During a team meeting - During a general assembly - Through a web application
- What are “valid objections”? - Is there the possibility of strong objections, which will immediately stop the process? - Does someone have a veto?
- How long can or should be discussion last until a proposal is accepted or rejected?
- How is all vital information distributed, to allow all members of the team or organization to participate in the decision finding process No one is allowed to have an information monopoly!
The question “What are valid or reasonable objections” is the most important, as everybody must understand this rule.
A “valid objection” is an objection, which must be explained by the raising person with arguments. “I have a bad feeling about this” is not a valid objection. Even when this bad feeling can be right, but the person who objects must explain why he has a bad feeling. “My gut says to me that this is not right” is not an argument.
Such rules make the entire process transparent and acceptable by all members of the team or organization.
We are practicing this process for more than 1 ½ years, and the acceptance of decisions is much better than before.
Moreover, because everyone can bring proposals and his opinion without any restriction, we can find much better decisions than before.
Perhaps it’s time to reconsider how you’re making decisions, and this can help you to find a process, which matches the culture inside your team or organization.
Let me know in the comments if you have experience in such a process for making decisions in your team or organization.
